Well, I feel as though I just managed to limp across the finish line on this one, owing to some rather challenging clues.
I do not understand 20A, and I had some questions about 26A, 7D, and 21D. I hope that the remainder of the blog is helpful, at least. I thought that this was going to be a pangram, but there is no J.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MADAME BUTTERFLY |
Opera title written with comma perhaps (6,9)
|
| MADAME (title) + BUTTERFLY (comma perhaps) | ||
| 9 | NIMBLER |
Comparatively agile doctor enters river, then another (7)
|
| {MB (doctor) inside (enters) NILE (river)} + R (another [river]) | ||
| 10 | MARCEAU |
French artist silently mixing cream and gold (7)
|
| Anagram of (mixing) CREAM + AU (gold), referring to mime artist Marcel Marceau | ||
| 11 | HANOI |
Chap’s content with boss being somewhere in Asia (5)
|
| Inside letters of (content [of]) [C]HA[P] + NOI (boss, i.e., “No. 1”) | ||
| 12 | QUADRILLE |
As training, start to enumerate steps (9)
|
| QUA (as) + DRILL (training) + first letter of (start to) E[NUMERATE] | ||
| 13 | ANCILLARY |
A new track by Liverpudlian songstress is supplementary (9)
|
| A + N (new) + CILLA (Liverpudlian songstress, referring to Cilla Black) + RY (track) | ||
| 15 | VIDEO |
Recording Victor Middleton at regular intervals (5)
|
| V (Victor) + alternate letters of (at regular intervals) [M]I[D]D[L]E[T]O[N] | ||
| 16 | ESSEX |
County executives vacated congress (5)
|
| Outside letters of (vacated) E[XECUTIVE]S + SEX (congress) | ||
| 18 | EARTHWORM |
One might dig deep to get this organ worth roughly a thousand (9)
|
| EAR (organ) + anagram of (roughly) WORTH + M (a thousand) | ||
| 20 | BUCK’S FIZZ |
Bubbly males face lecturing (5,4)
|
| BUCKS (males) + homophone of (lecturing) PHIZ (face), see KVa@1 and also thanks to Turbolegs. I knew “physiognomy,” but I was looking under “phys.” |
||
| 23 | CHANT |
Charm missing in French song (5)
|
| [EN]CHANT (charm) minus (missing) EN (in [in] French) | ||
| 24 | ALI BABA |
Legendary woodcutter who once fought Jack severing British planes (3,4)
|
| ALI (who once fought, referring to Muhammad Ali) + AB (jack, i.e., sailor) inside (severing) BA (British planes, referring to British Airways) | ||
| 25 | ECLIPSE |
Sky rarely features such film extracts in East European (7)
|
| CLIPS (film extracts) inside (in) {E (East) + E (European)} | ||
| 26 | TONGUE-AND-GROOVE |
Maybe Polish joiner fixed routine connecting boards (6-3-6)
|
| I think this parses as: TONGUE (maybe Polish [i.e., language]) + AND (joiner) + GROOVE (fixed routine) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MANY-HEADED BEAST |
The mob’s Yankee leader debates furiously with bloke (4-6,5)
|
| MAN (bloke) + Y (Yankee) + HEAD (leader) + anagram of (furiously) DEBATES | ||
| 2 | DEMONIC |
Not given full cappuccino (medium), turned furious (7)
|
| Hidden in (not given full) [CAPPU]CINO MED[IUM] inverted (turned) | ||
| 3 | MULTIPLEX |
Scottish isle contains peak — divorcee’s many pics are seen here (9)
|
| {MULL (Scottish isle) around (contains) TIP (peak)} + EX (divorcee) | ||
| 4 | BAR-B-Q |
Local DIY store providing grill for outdoors? (3-1-1)
|
| BAR (local) + B [&] Q (DIY store) | ||
| 5 | TOM SAWYER |
Titular hero of novel, boy was raised by the old river (3,6)
|
| TOM (boy) + WAS inverted (raised) + YE (archaic form of [old] the) + R (river) | ||
| 6 | ERROR |
Dread being without team’s foremost slip (5)
|
| [T]ERROR (dread) minus (being without) first letter of (foremost [of]) T[EAM] | ||
| 7 | FUELLED |
Encouraged European to meet rich newsman (7)
|
| 8 | YOU’VE GOT ME THERE |
I don’t know what might be said to driver when destination’s reached (5,3,2,5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 14 | AMERICANA |
Ian with camera snapped artefacts across the pond (9)
|
| Anagram of (snapped) (IAN + CAMERA) | ||
| 15 | VEHICULAR |
Unoccupied village copper probes Hilary erasing finish of bike, say (9)
|
| Outer letters of (unoccupied) V[ILLAG]E + {CU (copper) inside (probes) HILAR[Y] minus last letter (erasing finish)} | ||
| 17 | SUCTION |
Drawing in tabloid encapsulates court number ten (7)
|
| SUN (tabloid) around (encapsulates) {CT (court) + IO (number ten, i.e., “10”)} | ||
| 19 | ON APPRO |
Old pile seen by top sportsman without obligation to pay (2,5)
|
| O (old) + NAP (pile, as with fabric/carpet) + PRO (top sportsman) | ||
| 21 | SNAFU |
Chaos United supporters recalled (5)
|
| U (United) + FANS (supporters) all reversed (recalled). Alternatively, I don’t know whether “United supporters” might be called “U-fans”? | ||
| 22 | Z-BEND |
Variable high ground close to sand that’s hazardous for drivers (1-4)
|
| Z (variable) + BEN (high ground) + last letter of (close to) [SAN]D |
BUCK’S FIZZ
Randomly searched for words sounding like fizz and located phiz.
Chambers says phiz means ‘The face’.
26A and 21D: I parsed them as in the blog.
Great blog Cineraria! Nice puzzle Aardvark!
26A TONGUE-AND-GROOVE
Cineraria! What question did you have in mind?
21D SNAFU
United=U (it’s in Chambers and is routinely used in many puzzles. So I didn’t think beyond it).
Yes, really difficult and full of complicated charades. I finished after a long time and feel like cineraria – I just managed to limp across the line. It may have been my mood, but I feel it was least favourite puzzle for quite a while.
Thanks Aardvark and thanks Cineraria for a brilliant blog
Ha ha, as an LFC fan, 21d has some, shall we say, ‘interesting’ variations but I think it is as per your first version, Cineraria.
No problem with the blog’s TONGUE-AND GROOVE either.
KVa has it right with 20A. I often heard ‘fizzog’ in my youth (from phisiognomy) but had no idea how that colloquialism was spelt. Though I thought BUCKS FIZZ was bubbly mixed with orange juice.
Z-BEND threw me though because I thought this was S-bend.
My experience was perhaps similar to Cineraria’s in that I did find the puzzle tricky in parts but could finish unaided. I liked ANCILLARY and MARCEAU best.
Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria.
Thanks for the blog, great puzzlle with a challenging set of clues, Hard going when cold solving but the grid was helpful after , so many letters checked including all first letters.
Phizog is still used as UK slang for face and rarely shortened to phiz.
TONGUE-AND-GROOVE I think you have it spot on, I can’t see any issue.
United=U often written as this for brevity in results/tables etc. Used in the UK by many diving clubs.
EARTHWORM
Is the def all right?
One might dig deep: This seems fine. Why the ‘to get this’?
If we take the ‘to get’ as link words, the ‘this organ’ for EAR sounds odd.
What am I missing?
KVa@ 6 One refers to a person such as a gardener.
One ( a person ) might dig deep to get this ( an earthworm ) .
When the weather is dry the worms go very deep.
Roz@7
EARTHWORM
Yes. You are right.
I thought of that angle (I thought the ‘one’ could be a person or another creature) but dismissed it as loopy.
On second thoughts, it sounds all right. Thanks.
In fact one could stand in for YOU ( the solver ) .
You might ……
Bit of a struggle to get onto the wavelength. I am not at all convinced by ‘meet’ as an insertion indicator. Yes, it is defined as ‘to be introduced to’ but surely there is no sense of getting inside in that? If I introduce someone to my daughter, I certainly don’t expect … Let’s not go there!
Thanks both
In maths , to meet means to intersect .
Enjoyed this but like others took a while. The top half went in more quickly but took ages to get 1d and the bottom half was much slower. Thought there were some very misleading descriptions – well they misled me. (This is not a criticism.)
Liked: EARTHWORM (made me smile), QUADRILLE (amazed I remembered it although did not fully parse it), MARCEAU (whom I have seen), SUCTION, VEHICULAR, TOM SAWYER
Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria
I knew “Phiz” as a Scot’s word from Burns’ poem, “Address to the Devil” in the line “Ye did present your smoutie phiz”. I couldn’t parse 7, so thanks Cineraria.
I admit I didn’t understand the FIZZ bit of BUCK’S FIZZ and wasn’t certain about EARTHWORM but otherwise I thought this was our setter in his Aardvark, rather than Haardvark, mode. No tricks in the grid, as there were last time, that I could see. I liked QUADRILLE, MULTIPLEX and the nice surface for TOM SAWYER.
Thanks to Aardvark and Cineraria
I really liked this, one of my favourite crosswords in quite some time, probably helped by not finding it as much of a challenge as some others evidently did (although a couple of the parsings I wasn’t certain on: I did get BUCKS FIZZ, but both HANOI and ALI BABA I missed elements of). I thought the TOM SAWYER clue was excellent, and liked the slightly-hidden definitions of “French artist silently” and “Drawing in”.
Did anyone else have EARTHWORK for EARTHWORM initially? Swiftly corrected once I noticed it would make the long down clue almost impossible, but I think it works otherwise…
Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria.
Thank you setter and blogger! Found this enjoyable puzzle on the easier end of the spectrum but took a ridiculously long time to get 8D. Like @Diane I thought a 20A BUCKS FIZZ had orange juice in it. I could not parse FIZZ or the clever 23A “missing in French”….despite years of French studies and now living there. Doh!
Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria
20ac: ODE 2010 gives Buck’s Fizz as “champagne or sparkling white wine mixed with orange juice as a cocktail”. Chambers 2016 and Collins 2023 have similar definitions.
Sorry if I was a bit melodramatic @3.
I am continually fascinated by the different ways in which people react to the same puzzle. Some of us found it tough, some found it easy, I did not particularly enjoy it, others enjoyed it – especially Tom@15 who coined it one of his favourites for some time.
Also, BUCKS FIZZ is indeed orange juice and wine (usually sparkling). The same drink is also called a mimosa.
Whew! Thank you Cineraria! And Aardvark
I had a hard time parsing things and basically just guessed half the time to see if I could work it out later. Which actually worked about 75% of the time. But also failed when I put in staircase for 12a and velociped for 15d.
But hey. It was fun!